Fnatic Undefeated as Europe Heads into Playoffs
Welcome to the Playoffs
After another split of the European LCS, the region seems to have switched places with its North American counterparts in terms of consistency. Now a superpower towers above the rest of the region while a solid middle of the pack try to arrange themselves into a hierarchy under its shadow.
The Season 5 World Championship is fast approaching, and now with an extra gauntlet to be played with the new Championship Points system implemented this year, the battle for those precious 3 slots for Europe will be fiercer than ever.
The playoffs begin in roughly a week’s time, so let’s take stock of the teams going in, the teams who are missing out and how this will affect each team moving into the next few months. We’ll be listing the points each team currently has, but you can refer to this chart if you’re confused about how the system works.
Fnatic
What hasn’t already been said about this team? They are without a doubt the European superpower dwarfing every other competitor in their region. After going 18-0 this summer (a feat not even Korean world champions SK Telecom could do this year), it seems nothing can stop Fnatic from winning the gold once again.
If there was anything resembling a weakness for Fnatic it would be that their strength truly lies in their team play, so isolating them one member and delaying their superior rotational play would be key, as seen when Fnatic was put in severe deficits during both their games in week 7. Even then, they recovered gracefully and have only looked stronger since then. To any team that finds themselves opposite Fnatic on the rift: good luck.
Origen
If there’s one team that could even hope to stand up to Fnatic, it would be ex-Fnatic. Origen’s squad of veterans could be said to have higher individual talent than Fnatic’s members but Origen simply doesn’t match them in terms of team play as of yet.
Origen secured their second place finish in the regular season with strong early games and heavy snowballing leads. Look for them to smother their opponents early as they’ll need to either win outright place at least second in the playoffs to have a good chance at the gauntlet for a chance at Worlds—due to them being a new team without any points from spring.
H2k-Gaming
Spring: 50, Summer: minimum 20
H2k was once considered the most consistent team in Europe, adopting an updated version of SK Gaming’s old cerebral objective-based play. Spreading out their carry threats also meant that you couldn’t focus any one player down to neuter them.
Recently however, H2k have been in a rut. They’ve only won 2 of their last 6 games, including a surprise loss to last place Copenhagen Wolves. They’ve expressed trouble adapting to patch changes in the past, so we’ll see how far they can go this time.
Their 3rd place finish last split should help pad their chances for a good gauntlet placing even if they fail to perform in playoffs.
Unicorns of Love
Spring: 70, Summer: minimum 20
The fan favorites have lost some of their magic this split, still looking inconsistent even if chaos is the essence of their playstyle. Because they were second place last split, advancing one round in playoffs will already put them in a great spot for Worlds.
They’ll have a harder time repeating their spring performance however, as the loss of their jungler Kikis removes some of their key best of series edges, which is their off-meta picks. As of this writing, they haven’t released the official replacement for playoffs as of yet, but signs point to Cho “H0R0” Jae-hwan, former SK Telecom T1 S jungler.
Team Roccat
Spring: 0, Summer: minimum 20
As another new addition to the playoffs, Roccat has a lot to prove, especially since they had to bounce back from relegation last split. While they’ve looked inconsistent all year, they’ve at least found a rhythm behind their mid laner, Erlend “Nukeduck” Våtevik Holm.
While they don’t have a lot of points to their name, 3 teams from spring have forfeited their Championship Points by not making it into playoffs, so Roccat should at least be good for the gauntlet if they can’t match the Unicorns.
Giants! Gaming
Spring: 0, Summer: minimum 20
The Giants had one heck of a split, bouncing back from relegations to dwell in the 3rd-4th place spot for many consecutive weeks. Alas, a few slip ups in the later weeks culminated in a clutch loss to Roccat in a tie breaker, and they end up as the last place playoff team.
The deck seems stacked against them as they face the formidable H2k in their first round, but Giants still have the immense skill of their mid laner, Isaac “Pepiinero” Flores, to count on in a pinch. He’s carried them this far, but can he lead the team to glory again?
Missing out
Glory doesn’t await every LCS team, however. Those outside the top 6 must contend with less desirable fates. Here’s a look at the bitter pills the teams of the lower half must swallow.
Elements
The 2014 Summer Split champs are 7th for the second split in a row. Try as he might, Henrik “Froggen” Hansen can’t seem to replicate the magic he found when his pet project super team reached the pinnacle of Europe last year. Though they are safe for another split, one has to wonder how many changes the lineup can make revolving around Froggen until something clicks again.
Gambit Gaming
After another poor start to the split as they did in spring, Gambit adapted to having Konstantinos “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou in their bot lane by slowly turning him into a team player rather than the main carry. They were starting to find their stride until FORG1VEN was banned for toxicity. Losing their last two games without him, they must now face relegation and survive another two, as the stipulation goes.
SK Gaming
SK is the second team after Gambit to forfeit their Championship Points due to dropping into relegation. The team has been on a slow decline since the spring of 2014, going from 2nd to 3rd then 4th, and now all the way to 9th.
The loss of FORG1VEN proved too great to overcome, and they never could find their old mojo. Add internal issues and players wanting to leave on top of that and it’s no surprise SK are where they are.
Copenhagen Wolves
When it comes to internal issues however, no team can top the Wolves this split. Shady deals, lost trust, and an eventual roster meltdown have led to the team careening right down to last place after managing playoffs last split.
Their management has desperately tried to hold onto their star ADC, Aleš “Freeze” Kněžínek, and hopefully they still succeed in that endeavor, as they’re losing players left and right. Should Wolves look to rebuild, they’ll have to start all the way from the Challenger Series now.
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